There are quite a few competitors in this market since the last time this came up. I have a small rural park that is pretty low income and sometimes little to no access to technology, as well as single family homes that do not have those barriers.
Here’s what I’m looking for:
Check of eviction records, criminal, verify job/income, and reference check with current/past landlords (ideally more than just their current landlord!)
Secure transmission of sensitive information. (I currently email the company’s form back to them for a release–it has their social security on it, and I question the security of the website I use to submit the info.)
Ability for tenants to submit info themselves but a mechanism for me to do it when tenants don’t have any technology. I could email a signed release that doesn’t also include their social security #. (Especially at the park, I get senior citizens who do not have the foggiest notion of how to use a computer or the internet. They are my favorite tenants!)
Cheap for my tenants. The service I use now is $35/person.
I don’t feel like I need any additional services (accounting, advertising) so those benefits aren’t important.
There are many out there, but a couple of big names are Amrent and Transunion SmartMove. If you use one of the common property management software portals, they offer these services through the portal itself or you can post a link on your website for the tenant to apply and pay for the screening.
I use Landlord Shield right now. My only complaint with them is that it’s not very secure, and I’d like to pass on the data entry to tenants who have computer access. However–I’m not finding other companies that call the current landlord and employer to verify!
Does everyone use the full check including credit score (Which requires SS) or would the tenant screening, background check w/ sexual predator registry check be enough?
You need more than criminal and sexual predator checks. We take SSN and birthdate and do a complete check. While credit score is not very important, evictions are like kryptonite to Superman. If you only focus on criminal, you will not see evictions history. We once had a tenant who had 11 evictions in 3 years, which is seemingly impossible. Without an evictions check, you could be this tenant’s next landlord (and plaintiff on her 12th eviction).
My background check company verifies true identity and checks all former names/aliases. We offer a secure SOC2/PCI DSS Compliant portal (all personal identifiers are truncated once entered). Tenant Screening reports can be ordered directly from your account or optionally, you can have an applicant self-pay, self-screen by generating a unique email link from within your account. Once report is completed, it is uploaded into your secure account.
SSN Trace, Aliases, Former Names & Past Address History (SSN Required)
Name Variation Nationwide Criminal Database Search
Credit reports? As of July 1st, 2017 for companies that use credit reports, the biggest change will be in the decreased reporting of public records, specifically tax liens and civil judgments. Eviction judgments, such as forcible detainer and unlawful detainer judgments, are civil judgments, and thus they will disappear from credit bureau reports on July 1st. For resident screening and tenant screening users, this means that eviction judgments will cease to be reported on credit reports